An Interview on the Fulford Arms ‘Beach’ with Youth Salute

Youth Salute are:Andrew, Shane, Jordan and KJ

After seeing a blistering set at York’s epic Fulford Arms during independent venue week we caught up with all of upcoming Cumbria band Youth Salute and discussed everything from Biffy Clyro to dreadful local cover bands.

Youth Salute’s set on the night was a perfect representation of what Independent Venue Week is all about. A band who had never ventured to York before absolutely killing it with huge hooks, Biffy esque riffs and a drum line only topped by Shane’s vocals. After the set we headed out to what was literally a beach in -1°C heat for a quick chat.

When discussing the set the guys said it was their first time playing in York and that the sound from the Fulford Arms was very good. I posed the question to them about what, so far in their three years as a band, has been the highlights? “The Fulford Arms” was the obvious first response followed by the notion that “anywhere that isn’t out hometown (Workington) really”. These jokey responses however seemed to ring true with the whole band and they suggested that it’s hard to find anywhere near where they’re from “where people actually clap when you finish a song so tonight was nice.”

That may be a reflection on their home counties music scene however as their response to how the Cumbria music scene is right now was certainly more deflated than excited. “We’ve got one venue but it’s more pub bands and cover (dreadful) cover bands where we can predict the setlists (cue Mr Brightside opening riff).”

Moving swiftly on it was important we discussed the recent EP that the band put out towards the end of 2016. “The receptions been good, Maax from Vexxes (another band on the bill) actually did us a campaign. He has a little label on the go so he released that on for us and that’s how we ended up here tonight. We done a couple of videos for it but although the EP’s going down well people just haven’t heard it yet. Everyone that’s heard it likes it but since we’ve put it out we’ve literally played one gig in our hometown.”

Despite only just getting round to touring the recent EP, the band say they do have things in the pipeline for this year regarding recording. “We’ve been writing some new stuff and have one song pretty much in the bag. Got a little bit of another one I’d [Shane] like to record next month. Maybe put couple of singles out this year make a video release a single then do the same again”. So look out in the next few months for new tracks from these guys and catch them at the epic Moonfest in Cumbria..

“Yeah so were playing Moonfest in Kendal in May” Shane added “but we’d love to play Kendal, who wouldn’t. They do try in Cumbria to get music out it’s just hard. Maybe there’ll be a Moonfest stage at Kendal..” who knows.

Obviously with it being Independent Venue Week I was keen to get the guys take on it and how important it was to them. Shane suggested “Yeah man it’s great but with venues closing left right and centre it’s a f*****g shambles. Without them we’d have nowhere to play. To be fair like I wish we had this crowd where we played every night – even on a Thursday this is great.” So the importance of IVW to these guys was clear and the Fulford Arms showed itself to be one of the best around that night.

The lads were great to talk to and I highly recommend going to see them, downloading their music. For those that don’t know the band they described themselves as “alternative, like early Biffy” so definitely worth a shot if you’re that way minded. Hopefully we’ll catch up with them later in 2017 to see how things are!